Indo-Iranians

Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Ā́rya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European speaking peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages to major parts of Eurasia in waves from the first part of the 2nd millennium BC onwards. They eventually branched out into the Iranian peoples and Indo-Aryan peoples.

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A

• [T]he Rigveda and Avesta agreed that the essence of their shared parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial. If a person sacrificed to the right gods in the right way using the correct forms of the traditional hymns and poems, that person was an Aryan.
  • David W. Anthony, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World (Princeton University Press, 2007), p. 408

F

• Apart from the time-space expectations, there is not much in the archaeological material that could be taken as tags for tracing the Indo- Iranians/ Indo-Aryans.
  • Henri-Paul Francfort The Archaeology of Proto-historic Central Asia and the Problems of Identifying Indo-European and Uralic-speaking Populations. Francfort, H.P. pp. 151-163 in ―Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Consideration, ed. Carpelan, Parpola, Koskikallio Suomalais- Ugrilainen Seura, Helsinki, 2001.. Quoted in Talageri, S. G. (2010). The Rigveda and the Avesta. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

• But, in fact, very little of the illustrative archaeological material actually exhibits specific Indo-European or Indo-Iranian traits; a question therefore arises: what is the relevance of archaeological material if any sort of assemblage present at the expected or supposed time/space spot can function as the tag of a linguistic group?
  • The Archaeology of Proto-historic Central Asia and the Problems of Identifying Indo-European and Uralic-speaking Populations. Francfort, H.P. pp. 151-163 in ―Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations‖, ed. Carpelan, Parpola, Koskikallio Suomalais- Ugrilainen Seura, Helsinki, 2001.. Quoted in Talageri, S. G. (2010). The Rigveda and the Avesta. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

G

• The hypothesis proposing a steppe origin for the Indo-Iranians is inconsistent with: (1) the pattern of cultural development in the steppe during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age; (2) the model of dialectal division among Indo-Iranian languages; and (3) the complete absence of steppe materials, not only in Iran and India, but even in regions adjacent to them. Furthermore, it is internally contradictory. Its prolonged acceptance may be explained by the absence of critical scrutiny, much like the scenario realized by the child in Andersen’s fairy tale about the Naked King.
  • Stanislav Grigoriev , Indo-Aryans in the Bronze Age, 2025, Archaeopress ISBN: 978-1-80583-066-5

L

• Passages from the Avesta and the Rigveda are quoted by different authors to support the Indo-Iranian identity of both the BMAC and the Andronovo. The passages are sufficiently general to permit the Plains Indians of North America an Indo-Iranian identity.
  • Archaeology and Language ― The case of the Bronze Age Indo-Iranians. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Carl C., pp 142-177 in ―The Indo- Aryan Controversy — Evidence and Inference in Indian history, ed. Edwin F. Bryant and Laurie L. Patton, Routledge, London & New York, 2005.Quoted in Talageri, S. G. (2010). The Rigveda and the Avesta. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

• Ethnicity and language are not easily linked with an archaeological signature, and the identity of the Indo-Iranians remains elusive.
  • Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. (2002). Archaeology and Language. Current Anthropology, 43, 63 - 88.